Police: Motorcyclist tried to beat train to intersection, knocked off by crossing gates

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From the Puyallup Police Department.

PUYALLUP — A motorcyclist suffered minor injuries Thursday morning when he was knocked of his motorcycle by Sound Transit crossing during an effort, police said, to beat an oncoming train.

According to the Puyallup Police Department, officers were called to the scene of a crash around 8 a.m. at the intersection of 15th Street Southeast and East Pioneer Avenue. Officers said a motorcyclist was trying to drive under crossing gates to beat a train, when he was knocked off his bike by the gates.

The bike continued on and was struck by the northbound Sound Transit Sounder train. The driver was nicked by the train, too, but only suffered a minor injury.

Police said the driver was lucky to be alive, and the crash served as a reminder not to try to outrun trains to an intersection.

The motorcycle driver is very, very lucky he was knocked off his bike by the crossing arms that were coming down. Sounder still at the scene

7 comments

The World is Ending

BearTex3

Darwin has another one.

Looking at the picture, that looks like a transit train, which means from the time the arms come down and go back up is probably a little over a minute. Now he has lost his bike and I would assume is going to get cited and fined. BUt is that extra minute or maybe even 2 minutes worth losing your life. I hope not.

Wallus

Weasel

Never mind the hundreds of people it made 2+ hours late to work this morning. I was on that train, right up the front, loud bang, sound of something sparing gravel, sudden stop, alarms sounding. Quite exhilarating! Sounder trains are not very long, they wouldn’t of been waiting more than 15 – 30 seconds for it to pass.